 Police shootings in Paris

Two days before the French presidential election a man shot at police from a car on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on Thursday night, killing one officer and injuring two others. The IS terror organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack and investigations are under way. Commentators urge the French to defy terror and go out and vote, but fear that the attack could push more voters toward Marine Le Pen.

This could decide the election

Terrorism may now have the final say in the French election, La Repubblica fears:

“The anger will help those candidates who have taken a hard line on terrorism and anything that could be seen as promoting it - the migrants in general and refugees in particular. The attack on the police officers and the murder of one of them on the Champs-Élysées threatens to render the prognoses based on the latest polls useless. Marine Le Pen seemed to be having difficulties, garnering less virtual support than the moderate Emmanuel Macron. The bloodshed, two steps away from the Arc de Triomphe, will benefit the hard line. That of the Front National. This attack - like the Bataclan attack - is the work of professionals. It was carefully timed. The presidential election, the outcome of which was uncertain, has now taken a dramatic turn.”

Democracy as a weapon: go out and vote!

The people of France must fulfil their democratic duty despite the threat of terror and precisely because of it, Le Parisien writes in a commentary entitled "Our vote, our weapon":

“Baur and Merabet [the two suspected terrorists arrested this week in Marseille] are just like Coulibaly, Merah, the Kouachi brothers and Abaaoud. They suffer from the same mental perversion which consists of seeing murder as a heroic act. They have the same mediocre profiles: failed gangsters and pathetic dealers manipulated by the recruiters of the IS sect. We have to learn to live with the idea that they can strike at any moment and that there is no such thing as zero risk. ... We must oppose the obscenity of the jihadists and do the very thing that makes our democracy strong: go out and vote.”